10" Atlas rebuild

[iron man]

I'm kind of in the middle of doing something very similar. Used a 5" long chrome moly tube that I JB-Welded onto the nut. Turned down a couple steps on the dial mount end on the inside to house an acetal bearing for radial load, and like you, have needle bearings for axial load. Just need to make a fitting on the end for the outer needle bearings, then a hub for the dial/reader line.

Just got off of ebay looking for a larger dial and stumbled across a bridgeport dial:

View attachment 73059

Milling Machine Part- Dial w/200 Graduation Table/Cross - $36 shipping included


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Milling-Machine-Part-Dial-w-200-Graduation-Table-Cross-/171021870749

200 divisions, but from the specs on that page... ~3.25 diameter. Ought to be here within a week... and should be just a tad easier to read...

On mine the ball bearings are handling the thrust the needle bearing was an after thought for the dial to spin against. The bridgeport dial should be easy to read but if once you get it you do not like the size all is not lost I have seen many setups made with a bridgeport dial. Most machine it so it fasten's on the back of the spindle and then use a pointer to identify each line then they scribe each graduation on a smaller dial.. Ray

 

[tertiaryjim]

I did much the same on my china lathe.
Turned a acme 10 pitch shaft and nut and a new large OD dial.
Milled the graduations and stamped the numbers on the dial.
Had to make a riser for the reference line.
The compound won't swing over it but I can adjust backlash to 0.004 or less and the cross slide travels 1/2 thou. when I dial in one thou.
The large divisions are nice for bad eyes.

 

[iron man]

I got mine from Tallgrass tools I would not trade it for anything a must have mod for me. Ray

 

[iron man]

Re: 10" Atlas rebuild




I just finished a QCTH for my Atlas Lathe the brass ram pulls the tool holder in towards the main body it is a design i come up with and it seems to work well. The compound and slide are kind of weak on an Atlas 10" so I plan on making a different compound and slide to cure this the lathe is much better than stock now. Ray

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I did not have the funds to buy a good new one so I made this one I am impressed how well it works.

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And I just made some tool holders as well but man cutting dovetails on a small mill is really hard on that poor machine but it does a good job. Ray